Imperial Gangbangers

Florida Republican congressional candidate Allen West has been accused of consorting with bad company, in the form of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Whatever else can be said about the Outlaws, they are a far more reputable outfit than the gang Lt. Col. West used to hang with – the armed forces of Washington’s empire.

For the most part, the Outlaws MC consists of hard-living but essentially decent people. Some of the club’s members have used and dealt drugs – which is foolish and self-destructive, but shouldn’t be a crime. Others have been sent to prison for actual crimes of violence; those who have been incarcerated are numbered among the highly esteemed “One Percenters.”

The important fact here is the Outlaws have never invaded and occupied a distant country, terrorizing innocent people and killing upwards of 100,000 of them. Allen West cites his participation in a world-historic crime of violence against Iraq as his chief credential for elected office.

West was reprimanded for an incident in which he terrorized an Iraqi detainee by discharging a firearm next to his head. West insists that his action was justified in order to protect the men of his unit, who faced the kind of dangers that should be expected by any armed gang that storms into a neighborhood where they’re unwelcome. Though that action earned him a rebuke, a fine, and an early forced retirement from the military, it enhanced West’s standing among the military-worshiping statists who compose the Republican Party’s core constituency.

At some public gatherings West has relied on bikers – including Outlaws – for “security.” This led to an incident straight out of Weimar-era Germany in which a group of leather-clad bikers – acting on West’s instructions to “escort” a videographer from a public gathering – surrounded and threatened the young man, forcing him to leave: